1887

Abstract

Many bacteria produce extracellular molecules which function in cell-to-cell communication. One of these molecules, autoinducer 2 (AI-2), was first described as an extracellular signal produced by to control luciferase expression. Subsequently, a number of bacteria have been shown to possess AI-2 activity in their culture supernatants, and bear the gene product, which is required for AI-2 synthesis. In , and , encoding a 5′-methylthioadenosine/-adenosylhomocysteine nucleosidase (MTA/SAH’ase), form an operon, suggesting that -adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) or 5′-methylthioadenosine (MTA) serves as a substrate for AI-2 production. Cell-free extracts of MG1655, but not DH5α (which carries a frame-shift mutation) were capable of generating AI-2 activity upon addition of SAH, but not MTA. -Ribosyl-homocysteine (RH) derived from SAH also served as a substrate in MG1655 extracts. RH-supplemented cell-free extracts of , a bacterium that lacks , only generated AI-2 activity following the introduction of a plasmid containing the operon. In addition, defined systems consisting of the purified LuxS proteins from , , or converted RH to homocysteine and a compound that exhibits AI-2 activity.4-Hydroxy-5-methyl-3()-furanone was identified by mass spectrometry analysis as a major product formed in this reaction. In MG1655, expression of T3SH [the bacteriophage T3 -adenosylmethionine (SAM) hydrolase] significantly reduced AI-2 activity in culture supernatants, suggesting that AI-2 production is limited by the amount of SAH produced in SAM-dependent transmethylase reactions. The authors suggest that the LuxS protein has an important metabolic function in the recycling of SAH. They also show that is capable of removing AI-2 activity, implying that this molecule may act as a nutrient. In many bacteria AI-2 may in fact represent not a signal molecule but a metabolite which is released early and metabolized in the later stages of growth.

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2002-04-01
2024-03-28
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